Education

OUSD Families and Staff Oppose Cuts at Schools

Published

6 years ago

December 1, 2017

Supt. Kyla Johnson-Trammell says difficult steps are necessary to maintain stability

Hundreds of chanting protesters – teachers and school workers, parents and their children – filled the Oakland Board of Education meeting room this week to attempt to pressure the school board to halt or reduce the mid-year budget cuts that will directly impact schools and classrooms and result in layoffs of many low-wage school employees.

Monday evening’s meeting had been scheduled to vote on proposed cuts, but the school board is now considering ways to avoid some of the school site budget reductions.
The board’s Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled to discuss the proposal at its Thursday, Dec. 7 meeting, and the final decision on cuts is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 13.
Speaking to the crowded room – amid chants of “Chop from the Top!” – School Board President James asked for people to discuss “how these cuts will land on you” and to propose solutions.

“The board absolutely understands that you are upset about any threat to your students,” he said. “Our goal is to listen this evening.”

“I want you to know no decisions have been made about (the size of the cuts). No decisions have been made about (what to cut at) a school,” said Harris.

The room quieted as Supt. Kyla Johnson-Trammell outlined the district’s precarious budget situation and a proposal for recovery.

“As your new superintendent, I have inherited this fiscal challenge and now the responsibility to right the ship,” she said. “I acknowledge and understand the hurt, frustration and anger that everyone is feeling.”

She said some of the economic decisions made in the past two school years were made with the best intentions – for libraries, early childhood education and the Oakland Athletic League – but without regard to the impact on the overall budget.

“We have to look at what we’re going to divest in to make sure we are solvent,” she said. “That is where we fell short in the last two years.

“I know this information isn’t positive but it’s important to be transparent every step of the way about where we are – the good, the bad and the ugly, when we make mistakes.”

Some of the budget cuts at school sites and the central office are necessary to guarantee stability and avoid state takeover, she said. The needed money includes $1.2 million for the state-mandated reserve; a contingency reserve for unforeseen expenses totaling $7.2 million; and $4.7 million to support special education, a program that always costs more than the limited funding the district receives from the state.

The district may be able to postpone an additional $2 million in cuts the board had intended to use to begin to restore the depleted self -insurance fund, she said.

However, she said, budget reduction at both the central office and school sites are unavoidable.

Speaking to the Post after the meeting, Oakland Education Association (OEA) President Trish Gorham said, “I think it was long overdue, a small step in the direction. Some of the board members finally admitted their lack of oversight.

“The pressure of the community had them reduce the cuts – slightly. I feel more optimistic now that we can keep the cuts away from the school sites and the lowest paid workers.”
JoAanna Lougin, executive director of United Administrators of Oakland Schools, told the Post that responsibility for the district’s current crisis should be borne by much of the district’s top management.

“It’s poor management on the part of a whole lot of people. They took advantage of the situation. Now the workers are having to pay the cost for this with their jobs,” she continued. “There need to be consequences for these actions.”

Hundreds of teachers, school employees, families and community members attended the Oakland Board of Education Monday night to protest mid-year budget cuts that would mean reducing programs for children, cutting school supplies and laying off low-wage workers at schools. The board is expected to make a final decision Dec. 13. Photo by Ken Epstein.

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Salesian Coach Knew Angel Jackson Could Play in WNBA

Back in 2019, Salesian Girls Basketball Head Coach Stephen Pezzola made a bold prediction about one of his players, Angel Jackson. “If she keeps putting in the work like she did for us, she could be in the WNBA,” the coach said. That turned out to be very true. Last month, the Las Vegas Aces selected Jackson with the 36th overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. She is the second player from an Historically Black College or University, or HCBU, to be selected in the draft in 20 years.

Published

41 mins ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Angel Jackson. Photo courtesy of Jackston State.

The Richmond Standard

Back in 2019, Salesian Girls Basketball Head Coach Stephen Pezzola made a bold prediction about one of his players, Angel Jackson.

“If she keeps putting in the work like she did for us, she could be in the WNBA,” the coach said.

That turned out to be very true. Last month, the Las Vegas Aces selected Jackson with the 36th overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. She is the second player from an Historically Black College or University, or HCBU, to be selected in the draft in 20 years.

Jackson’s success came as little surprise to Pezzola, who last year led the Pride to their 8th North Coast Section championship since he took over the program in 2008-2009. In 2019, Pezzola commended Jackson as “a very coachable kid” from the time she arrived at Salesian.

Tomekia Reed, her coach at Jackson State, shared similar sentiments, noting Jackson worked “very hard” to reach this moment.

“She came into our program doing great things and never looked back,” Reed told the Clarion Ledger. “She has trusted our leadership as we were able to develop her into an amazing player. I have watched her improve tremendously over the years.”

The 6’-6” Jackson played three seasons at the University of Southern California before transferring to Jackson State. She was ranked 10th in the NCAA in blocked shots and averaged 10 points per game in her final college season.

She finished her collegiate career with 1,047 points and was twice named Southwestern Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

As the 36th pick, Jackson was the final pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. In a television interview, Jackson said she didn’t expect to be picked, and called the moment “surreal.”

“It made me feel so appreciative that HBCU is getting back on the map again,” she said.

All she could do in that moment was cry.

“I called my mom immediately, and she started crying,” Jackson said. “It was the best moment you can feel as a young lady.”

There’s no stopping Jackson now. “The sky is the limit,” she said.

Her high school coach agrees.

“I knew that Angel could do it,” Coach Pezzola told the Richmond Standard this week. “We are so proud of Angel and what she has accomplished. It was an honor and joy to coach Angel at Salesian.”

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Bay Area

Faces Around the Bay: Sidney Carey

Sidney Carey was born in Dallas, Texas. He moved with his family to West Oakland as a baby. His sister is deceased; one brother lives in Oakland. Carey was the Choir Director at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church for 18 years.

Published

51 mins ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Courtesy of Sidney Lane.

By Barbara Fluhrer

Sidney Carey was born in Dallas, Texas. He moved with his family to West Oakland as a baby. His sister is deceased; one brother lives in Oakland.

Carey was the Choir Director at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church for 18 years.

He graduated from McClymonds High with a scholarship in cosmetology and was the first African American to complete a nine-month course at the first Black Beauty School in Oakland: Charm Beauty College.

He earned his License, and then attended U.C., earning a secondary teaching credential. With his Instructors License, he went on to teach at Laney College, San Mateo College, Skyline and Universal Beauty College in Pinole, among others.

Carey was the first African American hair stylist at Joseph and I. Magnin department store in Oakland and in San Francisco, where he managed the hair stylist department, Shear Heaven.

In 2009, he quit teaching and was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. He was 60 and “too old for a heart transplant”. His doctors at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) went to court and fought successfully for his right to receive a transplant. One day, he received a call from CPMC, “Be here in one hour.” He underwent a transplant with a heart from a 25-year- old man in Vienna, Austria

Two years later, Carey resumed teaching at Laney College, finally retiring in 2012.

Now, he’s slowed down and comfortable in a Senior Residence in Berkeley, but still manages to fit his 6/4” frame in his 2002 Toyota and drive to family gatherings in Oakland and San Leandro and an occasional Four Seasons Arts concert.

He does his own shopping and cooking and uses Para Transit to keep constant doctor appointments while keeping up with anti-rejection meds. He often travels with doctors as a model of a successful heart-transplant plant recipient: 14 years.

Carey says, “I’m blessed” and, to the youth, “Don’t give up on your dreams!”

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Bay Area

Emiliano Zapata Street Academy Celebrates 40 Years Serving Oakland Families

The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.

Published

1 hour ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Live music was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, on April 27, at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue and 29th Street. Photo by Ken Epstein.

By Ken Epstein

The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50^th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.

Attending the Saturday, April 27 celebration were current and past students, families, faculty, and supporters of the school. The school is located at 417 29^th St., and the celebration was held nearby at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.

For more information, go to www.streetacademy.online or call 510) 874-3630 or (510) 879-2313.